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Top 10 greatest albums of 21st century: The 21st century didn’t just change how we listen to music, it transformed the very nature of what music means.

At the turn of the millennium, building a music collection meant spending thousands on physical CDs. Fast forward, and now the entire history of recorded music fits in your pocket.

It is streamable, sharable, and algorithmically sorted. From the rise of Napster to the reign of Spotify, the way we consume music has been completely rewritten.

And yet, through all the technological upheaval – from MP3s to iPods, from torrents to TikTok – the album has endured. Even as playlists and singles took over the mainstream, the best artists doubled down on the long-form format, treating it not just as a collection of songs, but as a statement of vision and purpose. Today, a major album release is treated as a cultural moment, complete with countdown clocks, viral theories, and $40 vinyl reissues for records fans already stream daily.

Artists like Beyonce and Taylor Swift evolved from hitmakers to era-defining auteurs. Others – like Kendrick Lamar, SZA, Bad Bunny, and Radiohead – reshaped the sound and soul of entire genres. They built new worlds in the wreckage of the old.